The Departing of Chaucer

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THE DEPARTING OF CHAUCER.

THE TEXT.

Beit. Mus. Addit. 16165 is a quarto, paper, of 258 pages.
On the recto of the first leaf is written, large, ma ioye, and below,
very large, Shirley. Pages 2 and 3 contain a versified table of
contents to be printed in full with my description and discussion of
the "Shirley" manuscripts. The codex comprises about twenty-
three numbers — Boece, Trevisa's Nicodemus, a prose Book of
Hunting, Lydgate's Complaint of the Black Knight, his Temple of
Glass, Chaucer's Anelida in two parts, the Complaint as No.
7, the remainder at the end of the MS, several short proverbial bits,
and from No. 14 to No. 20 short poems by Lydgate, ascribed to
him in their headings. No. 14 is an invocation to St. Anne, also
found in the Shirley MS Ashmole 59 ; No. 15 is the text here
printed ; No. 16 is a poem in four-beat lines, arranged in fifteen
stanzas of eight lines each, and beginning "Euery maner creature."
This is headed in the MS, "Amerous balade by Lydegate made
at I>e departing of Thomas Chauciers on pe kynges ambassade
into ffraunce." It appears also in the Shirley MS Ashmole 59,
where it follows the invocation to St. Anne, and in the Stow MS
Harley 367, the heading of which latter more nearly resembles
that of Ashmole than that of 16165. It is not apparent from the
text of this "amerous balade" that it had any connection with
Thomas Chaucer, although it is a lament for enforced absence from
the beloved. No. 16a in the 16165 codex is a "devynaile par
Pycard" of the name of the lady addressed ,in the "amerous
balade;" No. 17 is also in Ashmole, there following directly upon
the "amerous balade;" so that Nos. 21, 22, and 23 of the Ashmole
codex are Nos. 14, 16, and 17 of the MS 16165. Owing to the
especial carelessness and derivative character of the Ashmole
codex — a fact which I hope to demonstrate more fully later —
the poem No. 16, as copied in 16165, possesses more value for

331] 1 [MoDBEN Philology, October, 1903

2 Eleanor P. Hammond

students; but its connection with the name of Thomas Chaucer
is not clear to us, while No. 15, that printed below, has a very
definite interest for students of fifteenth-century history.

THE POEM.

From Rymer's Foedera it appears that Thomas Chaucer was
in 1417 one of several ambassadors authorized to treat for peace
with France ; the power is dated October 1 ; this is probably the
"ambassade" mentioned by Shirley, and the date of the poem
therefore is fairly certain. Other royal or important com-
missions laid upon Chaucer — those of June 14, 1414, and of
March 24, 1405 — -do not seem to have taken him out of Eng-
land; but on November 28, 1417, he was still negotiating, in
Berneville, the business upon which he was sent in October of
that year.

The shire whose residents are called upon by Lydgate to
bewail the absence of Chaucer was probably Norfolk, where
Chaucer owned the "embattled" manor-house of Gresham. This
appears likely from the mention of "gentyl Molyns." The manor
of Gresham, as Mr. Gairdner has explained in his preface to the
Paston Letters, was under Edward II the property of one Edmund
Bacon, and descended from him to his two daughters, Margaret
and Margery. The former married Sir William de Kerdeston,
and her rights were inherited by her daughter Maud, who married
Sir John Burghersh, and by the daughter of these two, Maud
Burghersh, who became the wife of Thomas Chaucer, and carried
to him the moiety of the estate which was hers by descent. The
other half of the Gresham estate, the property of Margery Bacon,
passed to her husband, Sir William Molynes; but, as he died
before her, the property was by her willed to be sold, the prior
right to purchase being given to William, son of Robert Molynes.
He at first declined to buy, and his later attempt to complete the
purchase came to nothing. Thomas Chaucer then bought the
other moiety of the estate, and later conveyed it entire to William
Paston. The subsequent struggle between the houses of Paston
and Molynes for the possession of Gresham is fully described by
Mr. Gairdner in his Introduction, as cited. It will appear likely,

332

The Depaeting of Chaucer 3

however, from the family connection just sketched, that a son of
the house of Molynes was a very natural inmate of the home of
Thomas Chaucer, and that the manor of Gresham, as the place of
common interest to both Molynes and Chaucer,, is probably meant
here. Further, this Norfolk manor was not far removed from the
abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, where Lydgate spent
most of his life; and the terms upon which this poem makes it
apparent that he stood with the rich and respected Thomas
Chaucer give an additional proof of the estimation in which the
poet was held in his own time. The internal evidence goes to
confirm the poem as Lydgate's, over and above the ascription of
the verses to him by his contemporary Shirley; the style, the
allusion to "Bacus' lykour," the catch-phrases, the vocabulary,
are all Lydgatian. In view of the now general assumption that
Thomas was the son of Geoffrey Chaucer, we may feel a little sur-
prise that so ardent an admirer of the poet as Lydgate did not on
this occasion allude to a connection of which his patron Chaucer
was presumably not ashamed; but the circumstances are, of course,
not fully known to us.

It may be added in closing that the last line of the first stanza
shows that Lydgate did upon occasion apply the term "master"
to someone other than Geoffrey Chaucer. The early date, earlier
than Chaucer's death in 1400, to which Professor Schick assigns
The Churl and the Bird because of the reference to "my
master" in the concluding stanza, becomes therefore somewhat
dubious.

Brit. Mus. MS Addit. 16165, pp. 248, 249. Owned and
written by John Shirley, oh. 1456. Headed in his hand —

"bALADE made BT LTDEGATE at pE DEPAKTTNG OF THOMAS OHAUOTEB
ON AMBASSADE IN TO FFBAUNOe"

(1)

O pow lucyna \ qwene and Empyresse
Of waters alls | and of floodes rage
And cleped art | lady and goddesse
Of lorneying | and fortunate passage
Governe and guye | by grace pe vyage
333

Eleanoe p. Hammond

l>owe heuenly queene | sith I of hert pray
My maystre' Ghaueyer \ goodely to convey

(2)
Him to expleyten | and firl^erne on his way
With holsome spede | ay in his loumee
And neptunus \ make eke no delaye
Him to favour | whane he is on pe see
Preserving him | frome al adversytee
ilrome al trouble | of wynde and eke of wawe
And lat Py grace | so to him adawe

(3)
t>at wher to hym | may beo moost plesaimce
I>er make him londe | he and his meynee
And god I prey | \>e whyle he is [in]^ flfraunce
To sende him helthe | and prosparytee
Hasty repayre | hoome to his cuntree
To recomfort | per with his presence
ffolkys pat mowme | moost for his absence

(4)
ffor sopely nowe | Pagreable sonne
Of housholding | and fulsmn haboimdaunce
Eclipsid is | as men recorden konne
&at founden per \ so ryche souffisaunce
fiFredam boimtee | with gode governaunce
Disport largesse | joye and al gladnesse
And passingly i goode chere with gentylesse

(5)
Ceres' also | goddesse of welfare
Was ay present | hir chaare with plentee lade
And Bacus Per | ne koude never spare
With his lykour | hertes for to glade
Refresshe folkis | pat were of colour fade
With* his conduytes | moost plenty vous habonde
t>e wellis hed | so fulsome ay is founde

(6)
His moost loye | is Innly gret repayre
Of gentilmen | of heghe and lowe estate

1 On margin, in scribe's hand, is written Thomas.

2 Not in MS. 3 MS Certen. * Bead Wher t

334

The Departing of Chaucee

l>at him thenkep | bope in foule and fayre

Withouten hem | he is but desolate

And to be loued | pe moost fortunate

tat ever I knewe | with othe of sopefastnesse

Of ryche and pore | for bounteuouse largesse

(7)

And gentyl Molyns \ myn owen lord so der
Lytel merveyle | poxighe )X)W sighe and pleyne
Now to forgone | pin owen pleying feere
I wot right wel I hit is to Pe gret peyne
But haue good hope | soone for to atteyne
I>in hertis blisse | agayne and pat right sone
Or foure tymes | echaunged be pe Mone.

Lat be youre weping | tendre creature

By my sainte Eleyne \ fer away in Ynde

How shoule ye | p& gret woo endure

Of his absence | Pat beon so truwe and kynde

Hape him amonge | enprynted in your mynde

And seythe for him | shortly in a clause

Goddes soule to hem | pat beon in cause

(9)

Ye gentilmen | dwelling envyroun

His absence eke | ye aught to compleyne

ffor farwell nowe | as in conclusyoun

Youre pleye | your loye | yif I shal not feyne

flFarwel huntyng | and hawkyng bope tweyne

And farewel nowe | cheef cause of your desport

flFor he absent | farewel youre recomfort

(10)

Late him not nowe | out of remembraimce
But ever amonge | hape him in memoyre
And for his saake | as in yomre dalyaunce
Saythe every day i deuotely pis memoyre
Saynt lulyan | oure loye and al oure gloyre
Come hoome ageyne | lyche as we desyre
To suppowaylen al Pe hole shyre

1 On margin by this stanza, in Shirley's hand, is written La feme Chauciers.

335

Eleanoe p. Hammond

(11)
And for my part | I sey right as I thenk
I am pvire sory | and Levy in myn hert
More pan I | expresse can ' with Inke
t>e want of him | so sore dope me smert
But for al pat | hit shal me nought astert
Daye and night | with hert debonayre
And prey to god | Pat he scone may repayre

Eleanor P. Hammond.
The University of Chicago.

1 On margin is a caret and wryte.

336